“I think it’s time American Indians tell their own story,” said Rickert, who says his stories don’t reflect an allegiance to any tribe. He is a descendant of Chief Whitepigeon, for whom the town White Pigeon in St. Joseph County is named.
Roving reporter

Nearly all stories or editorials are written by Rickert, who served as agency director for the North American Indian Center in Grand Rapids from 1994-2000. His partner, Mike Mohan, is the news site’s publisher and webmaster.

Rickert, whose journalism experience has primarily been book reviews and essays for The Press, now writes at a grueling pace of about five stories a day, six days a week.

A lot of his reporting is on the road. Last year, he traveled to more than 25 Indian reservations to cover stories.

Levi Rickert

“Everything I’ve known has been from the lens of an urban Indian,” Rickert said. “Going on an Indian reservation has been a very eye-opening experience. The poverty is mind-boggling. People don’t have telephones, let alone Internet lines.”

In an editorial on NNN, Rickert highlighted Diane Sawyer’s special investigation “A Hidden America: Children of the Plains” about Lakota children on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

His goal is to make the website look like a national news site.

“We didn’t want to look like a regional newsletter just for Indians or a blog,” Rickert said.

Since its launch in April, Native News Network has had more than 100,000 hits.

Rickert said he thinks the website offers something different than Indianz.com, which aggregates stories about Native Americans, including his.

Gaining support
The website appears to have developed a fast following in the American Indian community, said Kevin Finney, executive director of the Great Lakes Lifeways Institute.

When Native News Network featured a story previewing the Hopkins organization’s upcoming event about the Native American method of harvesting wild rice, it drew attendees representing tribes in six states and Canada.

“I think it’s a great thing for the Native community to be plugged in with what is going on at the broader regional level,” Finney said.

Rickert said his media venture isn’t financially viable yet, but ad sales are growing. Most of the site’s revenue is generated through Google ads. The website is supported by an investor whom Rickert declined to name.

His coverage of Dirk Whitebreast’s quest to run 10 marathons in 30 days to bring attention to the high rate of suicides among American Indian youth after his younger sister took her life was praised by the Aspen Institute, a Washington D.C.-based group that supports American Indian youth.

Rickert wants his stories to improve the image of American Indians.

“One of the things we try to be is not anti-white or anti-government,” Rickert said. “We try to be balanced.”